Broad-Bodied Chaser

Spoonbill

Thursday, 24 October 2013

I found this Osprey at Stocker's Lake, Herts, on the 21st October when it flew from behind a line of trees near the causeway. I could make out a large raptor through the foliage. Expecting a Red Kite to appear, it was a big surprise to see an Osprey emerge, pursued by a number of corvids. I managed to get the camera up in time to get a few shots before it went out of site quickly. I then picked it up some distance away towards Springwell Lake. I believe it then headed to Maple Lodge where it has been present for a few days.

A big crop of the bird in the distance shows it has a large circular chunk missing from its primaries, possibly the result of gunshot, although it doesn't seem to be impeding its flight.

Monday, 21 October 2013

At the beginning of October I spent four (and a half) days on the Isles of Scilly.After an overnight train from London to Penzance, it was straight onto the Scillonian for a bumpy three hours to St Mary's. Not the Scillonian:

It didn't take long before the wildlife appeared. The main surprise was the number of Common Dolphins - they were everywhere. I must have seen around 100 over the crossing.Unfortunately they are almost impossible to photograph, only breaking the waves for a milli-second, and never appearing in the same place twice - whilst I was trying to remain upright on the deck of the boat. I got lucky with this one which was performing some kind of belly-flop:

Apart from a lone Balearic Shearwater, the only birds seen were hundreds of Gannets:

Once on St. Mary's, the first encounter was with a Death's Head Hawkmoth, nonchalantly pulled from a fridge in the Dairy Cafe (and due to be released later). The first time I had seen one of these fantastic moths:

One of hundreds of migrant Wheatears on St.Mary's:

A Purple Heron at Lower Moors:

and Red-spotted Bluethroat:

A Whimbrel which fed on Old Town Beach for a few days:

A day on beautiful St. Agnes:

Juvenile Rose-coloured Starling - this sprang out of a bush in front of me whilst I sat eating lunch:

Back to St.Mary's, at Dawn:

Pebble sculptures:

Maybe next year:

Over on Tresco, the House Sparrows at The New Inn were very friendly!

Spotted Flycather on Tresco:

St. Martin's viewed from the east of Tresco:

This distant Short-toed Lark spent an afternoon by the airfield runway on St. Mary's:

An interesting journey back started when mist at Land's End meant all flights off Scilly were cancelled for the day. After hanging around the airport for a while, we managed to get a dozen volunteers to charter a jet boat back to Penzance. There was quite a swell so it was an interesting two hours, although it wasn't raining so it could have been worse!

The view from my seat on the boat!

Only two Shearwaters were seen, but relatively close and these Belearic's and some very close Common Dolphins ended the holiday nicely: